Frequently asked questions (FAQ)

According to the Anti-corruption Act, the authority has the right to establish the obligation to submit a declaration only in case there are no measures that are more efficient for prevention of the risk of corruption. Therefore, there is often a question about more efficient measures, and there is no single answer to this question. We suggest some possible measures for the so-called standard organisation (at the same time, however, there are specific measures of law enforcement agencies, for example).

1. An employee may be asked to inform the authority about holdings in companies, other employment contracts, and other ancillary activities (this is mandatory for officials). Under certain conditions, it is possible to restrict and prohibit ancillary activities.

2. An employee may be asked to declare his or her rights ad hoc. This means that a declaration should be submitted shortly before a decision. For example, a member of the procurement committee declares interests and relations with the participating companies or NGOs even if there is no formal basis for withdrawal (e.g. he or she is a member of a congregation with hundreds of members, but the decision does not entail personal benefits for him or her). In case of public procurements, interests could be declared in two stages: firstly, when establishing the conditions (e.g. participation in training funded by a potential tenderer, although it is not yet known whether this company participates in the procurement at all) and secondly, when evaluating the tenders.

3. It is possible to make inquiries about an employee from public databases without having to submit a declaration to be disclosed.

4. The authority should identify processes in which there is a higher risk of corruption (this should be the starting point).

5. Typical situations of conflict of interests should be identified (accepting gifts, influencing, participating in training that has been paid by some third person, etc.) and agree on the principles of behaviour and/or establish procedures. See also case examples of conflict of interests and solutions. See also case examples of conflict of interests and solutions, and the good practices of an official as a trainer.

6. The employees should be trained to ensure that the information about avoiding conflict of interests and preventing corruption would be available to them.

The declaration obligation arises from the law (clauses 13 (1) 1) and 2) of the Anti-corruption Act) or it is established on the basis of law (clauses 13 (1) 3)–15) of the Anti-corruption Act) by a competent public official or body. Upon establishing the declaration obligation according to the law, subsection 13 (3) of the Anti-corruption Act should be taken into account, based on which it is not allowed to establish an obligation if:

• a public official does not have the competence to dispose public instruments or the competence to carry out an offence or administrative proceedings;
• there are more efficient measures available for preventing the risk of corruption with regard to a public official.

The establishment of the declaration obligation according to the law may be based on the position (i.e. it does not have to be related to the risk of corruption of a specific public official), however, one should consider and verify that the establishment of the declaration obligation is not disproportionate.

The council may establish the obligation to submit a declaration based on law (more specifically, clauses 13 (1) 11) and 13)–15) of the Anti-corruption Act), however, it is not obligated to do so. In the absence of more efficient means of preventing the risk of corruption, the general obligation of an authority that is performing a public duty should be taken into account to ensure the control of compliance with the obligations of a public official carrying out a public duty on behalf of, upon their request or under their supervision (clause 3 (3) 2) of the Anti-corruption Act), which in individual cases may imply the need for the establishment of the obligation to submit a declaration based on law.

Declaration of interests (see section 14 of the Anti-corruption Act) contains a variety of information about the assets, liabilities, claims, interests, etc. of a public official, which is not directly linked to his or her risk of corruption. At the same time, however, the information to be declared is rather general, which does not always enable to assess the risk of corruption related to a specific public official. If it is possible to collect information of a public official in a more focused manner (it should be noted that the processing of data should comply with the provisions of the Personal Data Protection Act and the Public Information Act) for the purposes of his or her position and the avoidance of the risk of corruption directly linked to his or her person, this should be considered a more efficient means of preventing the risk of corruption than a public declaration obligation. For example, the ad hoc declaration of interests could be considered in case a public official participates in a procurement committee, etc.

Transparency is the best way to prevent corruption. Therefore, it is worthwhile to assess whether the decision-making processes in the organisation are sufficiently transparent and understandable for both employees and people from outside of the organisation. Additionally, the prevention means of corruption include lecture room training, the mapping of typical cases of conflict of interests in the field and the provision of solutions (some examples can be found on the website on corruption, which can be tailored by each authority according to their needs), test questions for evaluating such cases with a subsequent discussion, learning simulations, etc.

A competent authority (subsection 13 (5) of the Anti-corruption Act) means an authority with its duty being the submission of the information about a declarant in the register of the declarations of interests.

In case of a local authority, the competent authority is exclusively the council. The competence of the council as a competent authority is performed through the council office (if it exists) or urban or rural municipality government. Therefore, the details of the declarants at the level of local government, who are subject to the declaration obligation based on the law (clause 13 (1) 2)) or whose declaration obligation has been established by local government based on the law (clauses 13 (1) 11) and 13)–15)), are entered in the register of declarations of interests by a person authorised by the corresponding council office, urban or rural municipality (the manager of declarants) who has access to the e-Tax system.

Both versions comply with the law.

The declaration of interests should contain the proprietary or other benefits received over the previous year, therefore, also a gift with its market value exceeding the income subject to social tax, which has been earned by the declarant over the past four months, or if there is no such income or the income received is less than the current fourfold minimum wage (based on the Employment Contracts Act of the Government of the Republic), the monthly fourfold minimum wage. For example: if the monthly income of a public official subject to social tax is 3,000 euros, he or she has to declare a gift with its value exceeding 4*3,000 = 12,000 euros. The values of the benefits from a single source will be added up. A benefit, which the declarant has received from a family member or other close person who has been entered in the declaration, is not declared. A declaration indicates the provider of a benefit and the benefit value.

The register of interest declarations sends a reminder to a declarant if the declaration has not been submitted. Such a reminder is sent two months and two weeks before the deadline for submitting the declaration. If a declaration has already been submitted, the reminder will not be sent. In 2014, a reminder is only sent two weeks before the due date to those declarants whose due date for submitting the declaration is 31 May 2014. Therefore, the register does not immediately inform the declarant that his or her details have been entered in the register.

The income received while being in office over the four months should be taken into account, not the assigned income, including holiday pay. If the wage of a public official changed and the remuneration is paid out only next month, although it had been determined for the current month, the calculation should be made according to the former wage. For example, if a public official completes a declaration of interests in May and takes into account the remuneration for the last four months and his or her basic wage is 1,000 euros from 1 January–1 March 2014 and from 1 April 2014, the corresponding amount is 1,200 euros, which is transferred at the beginning of May, he or she should consider the income that has been actually earned from January to April as the income of the previous four months, or 4 x 1,000 euros.

Only the details of such declarants should be entered in the register whose declaration obligation arises from the current law and who were in office on 1 January 2014 or later (the start date of the declaration obligation is 31 January 2014 or later). Therefore, those council members, as well as other public officials, who were required to retroactively submit declarations based on the former rules, but left their positions before 1 January 2014, should not be entered in the register and it is necessary to bear in mind that the former procedure for declaring economic interests has terminated its legal effect with the former Anti-corruption Act.

An earlier date than 31 January 2014 cannot be entered as the start date of the obligation, even regardless of the fact that part of public officials are subject to the declaration obligation on the basis of the law that entered into force on 1 April 2013. As those declarants, who left office before 1 January 2014, are not entered in the register, it is also not required to indicate the end of the obligation. With regard to those, who were in office this year, but have left by now, it is possible to enter the date of their last day in office, and the system considers this as the end of obligation. If an obligation has been declared invalid for a certain person, it is also possible to enter the end date of the obligation.

With regard to those persons, who serve as declarants on several grounds, competing obligations should be entered with the corresponding details of the employer and position. This way, one person becomes a multiple declarant. The reason lies in the fact that the person’s obligation to declare himself or herself as a member of the council may end at some point, however, he or she will remain in the supervisory board of the foundation or vice versa.

An employer means an authority in or for which the declarant works as a declarant. This information aims to facilitate the inquiry of declarants by their positions. If the council does not have an office, the field for an employer should be left blank in case of a member of the council. If the council has an office, the council office may be indicated as an employer. As the local government as such has not been entered in the register of taxable persons (there is either government or government and the council office), it is not possible to indicate X rural municipality as the employer, for example. An institution or a company is not indicated as the employer if the council member is working there without participating in the council. This will be indicated as an ancillary activity in the declaration.

If a declarant has not confirmed the declaration and the year has not changed in the meantime, it is possible to continue the completion of declaration for days, weeks or event months. To this end, click on the button “Modify” (the button “View” displays the view in which modifications cannot be made). Please make sure that all information is correct before clicking on the button “Confirm”. A declaration that has already been approved (submitted) cannot be changed. If the details of the land register or commercial register, for example, change during the period of completing the declaration, you can fill in the corresponding fields with topical data by clicking “Refresh” next to the corresponding field.

This button fills in the current data in other databases. This should be clicked if you have started to complete the declaration after some time and, as you know, the details have been changed, and also in case if you have deleted the details accidentally from the field that has been previously completed with the details from another database. NB: If you want to change the pre-filled details (e.g. to erase details concerning vehicles that have been removed from the traffic register, but added to the declaration from the archives of the traffic register), you need to click “Change” and delete the wrong fields. Then you may not click the button “Refresh”, as it will bring incorrect data back to the declaration.

A contract of suretyship for a study loan is a joint and several liability to another person, similarly to a loan that has been taken as a co-applicant or a loan that has been taken by a spouse in case of joint property mode. This should be declared in conjunction with other obligations in clause 3D of the declaration.